Two mysteries created to titillate the most seasoned of “series” or movie sleuths; missing murdered children, myriad of homicidal possibilities; both infused with an appropriate modicum of barbarity, enough to stave off ennui, and most importantly, capitalize on the element of surprise. “I See You” commences benignly with the search for a missing teen: Jon Tenney (“The Closer”, “Major Crimes”) ... Read More »
Despite the political hubris, here are two films, whose attributes render the purist forms of entertainment: magically, magnificently filmed, landscapes proving a higher power, extraordinary metaphors universally resonating in this pandemic period; in spite of the controversy bubbling around the mythical “Mulan” or the veracity of the non-fictional “The Eight Hundred” directors Niki Caro’s (“Mulan”) and Guan Hu’s (“The Eight ... Read More »
Korean filmmakers are “kings of creep” and the horror genre topples the titillation scale with their imaginative creativity; a genre that seems to have exponentially grown with the pandemic; things can degenerate and viewing these films confirms the worst case scenario. Director Yeon Sang-ho scores with an allegorical tale of zombies versus humans, on a train to “Busan”; a “virus” ... Read More »
Periodically one experiences a film, a television series so remarkably outstanding, that words to describe its potency have yet to be conjured; director Lee Eung-bok’s “Mr. Sunshine” is one of a few to populate this category; it seizes the celestial in every domain: commencing in 1871 a nine-year-old boy “Eugene Choi” flees Joseon after his parents are slain, they are ... Read More »
2020, destined to be immortalized as the era of Covid-19; traumatic, terrorizing, a year of cauterization, of vulnerability, unlike anything visited upon mankind since 1918, when fifty million people worldwide perished as the influenza pandemic spread its toxic tentacles. Searching for an antibiotic, a tonic to relieve the frustrations, the monotony of confinement in a structured, known environment; television is ... Read More »
Jerzy Kosinski’s 1965 novel of the same name, translates into a horrific, bestial, brilliant visual experience; not for the squeamish or feint sensitivities; there are scenes seared permanently in my memory; moral turpitude on an unimaginable scale; cruelty practiced by a religious populace. Crimes perpetrated upon a young boy seeking safety, sanity in Eastern Europe, during WWII. He is Jewish, ... Read More »
Most of us have had it with homeland incarceration; abiding by authoritative regulations, our relationship with the outside world, revolve around our television/computer. Here are a few to view or shun: “GRANDCHESTER”: a British detective series (PBS, AMAZON PRIME) in its fifth season, surviving the loss of magnetic James Norton (does an about face, from saint to sinner in “Happy ... Read More »
Unerringly poignant, sublimely sensitive, an exquisite story within a story directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (“The Shoplifters”); actors Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, imposingly comfortable in their craft are commanding as a mother/daughter team, with unresolved issues; Deneuve, “Fabienne” at the nadir of her career as a scion of the film industry, struggling with memory deficiency, has written a fabricated autobiography; Binoche, is her daughter, “Lumir”, ... Read More »
This fine Australian film, won prizes at many 2019 film festivals; without sensationalism it splays to the core a family’s horrifying pain of watching their teenage daughter’s loosing battle with intransigent cancer. Director Shannon Murphy (screenplay: Rita Kalnejais) in tandem with an extraordinary cast emotionally sear viewers with a revelatory, insightful vision of coping with the unimaginable. Eliza Scanlen’s, “Milla” ... Read More »
It is baffling that I missed this profusely profound historical film based on a man, possessing Olympian attributes and daunting, divine courage; Hemingway defines courage as grace under pressure; Jan Baalsrud’s (1917-1988) paranormal, formidable fortitude led to his escape from the Nazi’s in the spring of 1943, Norway; a magnificent testament, celebration of man’s will to transcend normalcy, inhabit the ... Read More »
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